Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
Oh Friends, that’s the only way to enjoy the fruits of this earthly life; by constantly giving glory to the Lord our God. What was it with the Israelites of old eh? After making a covenant with the One, True God, that of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whereby He would be their God, and they His chosen people, and lead them out of bondage in Egypt, to a land of milk and honey, once on the other side of the Red Sea, they refused to follow the rules set out in the contract, so the Lord punished them. However after undergoing some hard times, they eventually smartened up, repented and returned to His fold. But this sadly kept reoccurring: when they got prosperous, they forgot the Lord, went a whoring after the gods of other nations, while committing atrocious, abominable acts in the Lord’s name. Each time the Lord severely punished them, but being of a forgiving, merciful nature, never utterly destroyed them. Today’s Bit deals with one of those times, during the days of Jeremiah. The Lord was so fed up with their ungodly antics, that He directed Jeremiah to go out into all the land and remind the people of their covenant with Him. ‘And say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant.’ Friends, that same covenant with the Lord has been passed down to us today, just in a slightly different form, arising from the intercession of Jesus. But to obtain real LOVE, forgiveness and mercy from the Father, we still need to be obedient to His dictates, and lavish Him with the glory He so richly deserves. When Israel destroyed Jericho, and A’chan disobeyed the Lord’s command not to take certain spoil, and God punished Israel for it, what did Joshua say to him? ‘My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him.’ (Jos.7:19) Bruh David had the same advice. ‘Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering and come into his courts.’ (Ps. 96:8) And the prophet Malachi declared: ‘And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you; and I will curse your blessings.’ (Mal.2:2) Friends, our God is a jealous God. He minces no matters in that. He made us to serve, worship and glorify Him. Anytime we do otherwise, it angers Him. And right now Friends, I believe He’s pretty angry with us; for as He said to Judah through Jeremiah; ‘For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing; even altars to burn incense unto Baal.’ (Jer.11:13) Yes people, today we’re just as, if not more ungodly and deviant as they were. Numerous religions are floating around. Everybody’s worshipping whom or what they desire; It’s the time of individual freedom. Ah people, individual freedom is fine, but only under the umbrella of God’s covenant. The Lord was so annoyed that He instructed Jeremiah; ‘Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry for them: for I will not hear them in time that they cry unto me for their trouble.’ (Jer.11:14) Oh Friends, who knows if the Lord’s feeling the same way about us now, with all our evil doings. As I keep saying, all the hard times that have recently befallen our world could not be mere coincidence or chance. In any case, coincidence and chance are by-products of God’s actions. If one believes the Good Book, then there are so many similarities to our time, that the negative happenings must have to do with God’s displeasure at our disgusting, ungodly behaviour. What’s wrong with us eh? Thousands of years later, we’re still making the same mistakes Judah did. Can’t we understand it’s best to learn from someone else’s mistakes? Or is our faith so fickle, our hearts and minds so polluted by the faked glitz of the world, that we’ve forgotten the one who really caused us to overcome and prosper in the first place; The Lord God Jehovah? Oh Friends, I implore us, like Jeremiah did way back when, let’s ignore the worthless trappings of the world and instead focus our full attention on giving glory to our God. It’s time to repent and return to His ever-loving fold. Much LOVE!…once is accident…twice is mistake…but three times…that’s stupidity… To be continued.
Oh Friends, that’s the only way to enjoy the fruits of this earthly life; by constantly giving glory to the Lord our God. What was it with the Israelites of old eh? After making a covenant with the One, True God, that of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whereby He would be their God, and they His chosen people, and lead them out of bondage in Egypt, to a land of milk and honey, once on the other side of the Red Sea, they refused to follow the rules set out in the contract, so the Lord punished them. However after undergoing some hard times, they eventually smartened up, repented and returned to His fold. But this sadly kept reoccurring: when they got prosperous, they forgot the Lord, went a whoring after the gods of other nations, while committing atrocious, abominable acts in the Lord’s name. Each time the Lord severely punished them, but being of a forgiving, merciful nature, never utterly destroyed them. Today’s Bit deals with one of those times, during the days of Jeremiah. The Lord was so fed up with their ungodly antics, that He directed Jeremiah to go out into all the land and remind the people of their covenant with Him. ‘And say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant.’ Friends, that same covenant with the Lord has been passed down to us today, just in a slightly different form, arising from the intercession of Jesus. But to obtain real LOVE, forgiveness and mercy from the Father, we still need to be obedient to His dictates, and lavish Him with the glory He so richly deserves. When Israel destroyed Jericho, and A’chan disobeyed the Lord’s command not to take certain spoil, and God punished Israel for it, what did Joshua say to him? ‘My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him.’ (Jos.7:19) Bruh David had the same advice. ‘Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering and come into his courts.’ (Ps. 96:8) And the prophet Malachi declared: ‘And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you; and I will curse your blessings.’ (Mal.2:2) Friends, our God is a jealous God. He minces no matters in that. He made us to serve, worship and glorify Him. Anytime we do otherwise, it angers Him. And right now Friends, I believe He’s pretty angry with us; for as He said to Judah through Jeremiah; ‘For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing; even altars to burn incense unto Baal.’ (Jer.11:13) Yes people, today we’re just as, if not more ungodly and deviant as they were. Numerous religions are floating around. Everybody’s worshipping whom or what they desire; It’s the time of individual freedom. Ah people, individual freedom is fine, but only under the umbrella of God’s covenant. The Lord was so annoyed that He instructed Jeremiah; ‘Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry for them: for I will not hear them in time that they cry unto me for their trouble.’ (Jer.11:14) Oh Friends, who knows if the Lord’s feeling the same way about us now, with all our evil doings. As I keep saying, all the hard times that have recently befallen our world could not be mere coincidence or chance. In any case, coincidence and chance are by-products of God’s actions. If one believes the Good Book, then there are so many similarities to our time, that the negative happenings must have to do with God’s displeasure at our disgusting, ungodly behaviour. What’s wrong with us eh? Thousands of years later, we’re still making the same mistakes Judah did. Can’t we understand it’s best to learn from someone else’s mistakes? Or is our faith so fickle, our hearts and minds so polluted by the faked glitz of the world, that we’ve forgotten the one who really caused us to overcome and prosper in the first place; The Lord God Jehovah? Oh Friends, I implore us, like Jeremiah did way back when, let’s ignore the worthless trappings of the world and instead focus our full attention on giving glory to our God. It’s time to repent and return to His ever-loving fold. Much LOVE!…once is accident…twice is mistake…but three times…that’s stupidity… To be continued.
SCRIP-BITS 